PHOTO BY GENEVIEVE LEVESQUE-MUMFORD / MPW.60 PHOTO BY GENEVIEVE LEVESQUE-MUMFORD / MPW.60
  • Minnie-Marie at the Head of the Table
  • By GENEVIEVE LEVESQUE-MUMFORD
  • The 60th Missouri Photo Workshop / St. James, Mo.
  • Minnie-Marie Lacy has lived in St-James Missouri her whole life. She lost her husband on March 17th of this year, leaving her widowed for the third time.

    Minnie is a simple lady. Her days consist of a series of events she routinely takes part in to distract herself from missing her recently deceased husband, Andy. In 1996, she also lost her second husband, Ernie, who was Andy’s and her close childhood friend. The memories of her first husband she chooses to dismiss.

    Minnie wakes up every morning to promptly make her way to Pa’s Corner, a restaurant, where she spends two to three hours sitting at the head of a six-top table as friends come and go. A usual group meets at Pa’s before going their separate ways for the day and expect Minnie to be there to gossip and share some laughs. “If Minnie wasn’t in one morning, we would call her right away to make sure nothing was wrong,” says the owner, Angie. This community space has provided a comfortable social setting for Minnie to meet with friends without too much intimacy. Having lost her two best friends, the idea of making new best friends at the risk of loosing them is constantly on Minnie’s mind which causes her to remain distant.



  • 1 of 12